In 1988 the scientific community established the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change as a forum for sharing their concerns about documented – and disturbing – changes in global weather patterns. By 1997 the evidence of climate change was so convincing that 191 nations signed the Kyoto Protocols, aimed at slowing the accumulation of greenhouse gases in the atmosphere.

Fast forward to 2012. NASA has produced clear evidence that atmospheric CO2 levels are higher than they’ve been in 400,000 years. The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), the federal agency in charge of the National Weather Service, states that there is no longer any doubt that human activity is changing the chemical characteristics of the Earth’s atmosphere. The national science academies of the world’s leading economies, including the U.S., Germany, Russia, and China, have declared that climate change is real and urged their governments to take immediate, aggressive action.

And then there’s Rick Santorum.

Along the campaign trail in Colorado, Ohio, and Michigan Santorum has declared climate change to be a hoax cooked up by the Obama administration to scare people about oil exploration. Spending less money on oil exploration means more money for the federal government, Santorum said, which means more government control over peoples’ lives.

He doesn’t explain how the government would make money by allowing less oil exploration, or how any of that would equate to more control over peoples’ lives. Nor is it important that concerns about global warming began long before Obama entered politics, or that America’s most prestigious scientific institutions are urging immediate action to reduce carbon emissions. Somehow it’s all connected, and in the alternative reality of Tea Party politics, the more elaborate and mysterious the conspiracy, the more plausible it becomes.

Romney and Gingrich have also questioned climate change, but it’s clear they are just pandering to conservative audiences. Both have acknowledged the problem during their political careers and will likely do so again when the primaries are over. And neither man has accused the country’s scientific establishment of being involved in a vast conspiracy to deprive the American people of their freedom.

Not Rick Santorum. His strident rejection of any scientific evidence that conflicts with his religious or social views has helped make him the new champion of the far right, which is why he is surging in the polls. But if he wins the nomination based on his anti-science agenda, he’ll be in no position to back down during the presidential campaign.

Intellectual curiosity is not a quality that American voters prize in their leaders, as the election of George Bush clearly demonstrated. But they do expect them to respect and support America’s scientific establishment, not label them as political enemies. Questioning the severity and timing of climate change is one thing; but where’s Santorum’s evidence that it’s a hoax?

Right now, Santorum is preaching to the Tea Party choir, and they’re cheering him on. But in a presidential campaign, the national media won’t be so kind. Republicans should be deeply concerned.

Image Courtesy of   http://www.flickr.com/photos/gageskidmore/

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About the author

George Tyler
George Tyler is a science and health news reporter. His most recent work includes stories about alternative therapies to treat depression, government regulation of the nuclear power industry, teenage suicide, and what recent discoveries in anthropology tell us about modern human behavior.

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3 Comments for Santorum’s Anti-Science Agenda Should Concern Republicans

kiara ashanti

But there overwhelming evidence, shows that man made warming is a falsehood? Conservatives are not against science. They are against science that is lead by an agenda, but not facts, or evidence. The worse thing any scientist can do is to start with a conclusion. You start with evidence and let that lead to you to the conclusion. When you do that, you’re left with the simple fact that global warming, such as it is, is a natural cycle caused by more activity on the sun. The idea that humans are the cause has been disproved, and supremely arrogant.

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George Tyler

Kiara,

Thanks for the comment. First, my main point was that accusing hundreds of thousands of university trained specialists and experts in their fields of simultaneously engaging in a conspiracy is nonsense. The science of climate changes is quite simple and has nothing to do with activity on the sun. Every gas – oxygen, nitrogen, carbon dioxide, etc. – has the property of “specific heat.” It is the ability of that gas to heat up, cool down, and retain heat. The specific heat of a mixture of gases is a combination of their specific heats. When you change the ratio of the mixture – for example, by adding more carbon dioxide – you change the specific heat. By pumping trillions of tons of carbon dioxide into the Earth’s atmosphere, we are changing its chemical properties (heat retention, etc.) That’s the basic science behind climate change, and it is indisputable and is supported by over 30 years of solid data collected by reputable scientific organizations, such as NASA and NOAA and the US Academy of Science. What is in dispute is how quickly the atmosphere is changing and what impact it is having on global weather patterns. Some non-scientists have misinterpreted this ongoing dispute about the specifics of climate change as evidence that the entire theory is incorrect. That’s an understandable mistake, but a serious presidential candidate should know better. It is Rick Santorum who is being supremely arrogant by exploiting this misunderstanding of non-scientists to push his political agenda.

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Bob Bleepout

Rick Santorum Creates a New Life – must see this strange yet thought provoking animation.

Watch Rick as he accidentally masturbates and deals with the consequences.

Rick Santorum Creates a New Life – must see this strange yet thought provoking animation. Targets major social issues. Why does Rick scare so many normal people? Twisted and funny. He is out of the race but will still be pushing his agenda, and just the fact he got so far in the primaries is an insult to the intelligence if this country!The latest from Bleep Productions. Truth through comedy! Strange and funny animation videos! Share The Link- ADULT CONTENT! on the youtube link below.

http://youtu.be/JLtpbaFnjng

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